Executables overview

The Cantabular package contains several executables which are described below. The Linux and Windows packages contain similar files, but the Windows executables have a .exe file extension. The Linux executable names are used throughout this section.

All but two of the executables will display help text when run without any parameters or with an argument of -? on their command line. The exceptions are cantabular-ui and cantabular-api-ext which by default will run with no parameters and try to connect to the default API port. However they report in their log output that you can supply -? to display help.

cantabular-make-dataset

A batch or interactive program to create a binary dataset file (.dat). The output file is used by cantabular-server to serve data. The input is a textual configuration file in JSON format (RFC 7159) and various other text files in CSV format (RFC 4180).

cantabular-server

A server program designed to run continuously as a service which allows queries to be made via a REST API over HTTP(S).

cantabular-api-ext

A server program designed to run continuously as a service which provides extended API features that afford additional flexibility and usability over the API provided by cantabular-server.

cantabular-metadata

A server program designed to run continuously as a service which allows GraphQL queries to be made for metadata associated with the datasets and their variables loaded into cantabular-server.

cantabular-ui

A server program designed to run continuously as a service which serves a web site over HTTP(S) and communicates with a running cantabular-server via the API to obtain data and make queries. The web site it serves is designed for public use by end users who wish to construct output tables and download them.

cantabular-admin

A program which can run in the foreground or continuously as a service which serves a web site over HTTP(S). The web site it serves is designed for internal use by data administrators. It loads dataset files directly and allows experimenting with SDC settings and viewing details of datasets.

cantabular-inspect

A command line utility program to display details of the contents of a dataset file created by cantabular-make-dataset.

cantabular-hash-password

A command line utility program to create a password hash needed for specifying user passwords for use in a users file for cantabular-server or cantabular-ui.